Alessandro
Pezzati, Reference Archivist, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Consulting Curator

David
Wilcox, Curator of Anthropology, University of Northern Arizona

Photograph Curator

Rachel Danzing

Photographer

Christa Blackwood

Acknowledgements

This guide is the culmination of more than eight years of research and
planning to describe, arrange, and preserve the Culin Archival Collection. The
project involved many different individuals and departments within the Brooklyn
Museum of Art as well as colleagues and consultants across the country. From
the start, the primary goal of this project has been to make the extensive
documentation assembled by Stewart Culin more accessible and better known to
both scholars and the general public. We are extremely grateful to the National
Endowment for the Humanities for supporting the staff and project activities.
We also received support from the New York State Program for the Conservation
and Preservation of Library Research Materials that allowed for the completion
of treatment of the photographs.

Individuals outside the Museum who assisted project staff include: David
Wilcox, who reviewed and categorized the Cushing sketches; Alessandro Pezzati,
who surveyed Culin records held in various Philadelphia institutions;
photographer Christa Blackwood, who created copy negatives and prints of many
photographs; and the staff of Preservation Resources, who microfilmed portions
of the collection.

This project could not have been accomplished without the expert
direction of Deirdre Lawrence and Deborah Wythe, who were responsible for
overseeing the implementation of the entire project and compiled the final
version of the finding aid. A number of archivists contributed to the project
at different stages: Brenda Hearing surveyed the collection and created the
organizational scheme; Katherine Culkin processed files, entered folder
descriptions into the Culin database, surveyed off-site repositories, and
prepared preliminary drafts of the series descriptions; John Panter wrote final
versions of several series descriptions and assisted with the final arrangement
of the collection.

Mandy Sharp, Archives Preservation Assistant, very ably worked to
preserve the textual and visual documents, which posed a variety of
preservation problems, created database access tools for visual materials, and
managed the microfilming component of the project. Susan Share, Library
Preservation Associate, and Keith DuQuette, Library Preservation Assistant,
supervised and assisted with preservation activities throughout the project.
Museum Conservators Antoinette Owen and Rachel Danzing oversaw the selection of
preservation materials for rehousing the collection and treatment of the
photographs.

We are also grateful to the following Museum staff, past and present,
for general assistance with this project: William Hemmig, Library Associate;
Elaine Koss, Vice Director for Publications; Lisa Mackie, Assistant Editor;
Dorothy Ryan, Development Officer for Government Grants; John DiClemente,
Design Department; Yvette Schops, intern; volunteer archivist Nancy Johnson,
who created online records describing the Culin Archival Collection in the
Research Libraries Information Network; and volunteers Peggy Coltrera and
Lucile Zuckerman. Diana Fane, Chair of the Department of the Arts of Africa,
the Pacific, and the Americas, and Ira Jacknis both provided invaluable
counsel.

Collection Overview

SRG

S01

Repository

Brooklyn Museum of
Art

Creator

Culin, Stewart

Title

Culin Archival
Collection

Dates

1871-1933

unitdate

bulk 1903-1928

Extent:

77 l.f.

abstract

The Culin Archival Collection documents
the life and work of ethnologist and museum curator Stewart Culin (1858-1929);
his role in developing the collections of the Department of Ethnology at the
Brooklyn Museum (now the Brooklyn Museum of Art); his efforts to present the
collections to the public through exhibitions, installations, and public
program; and his research on Native American, Asian, and Eastern European
cultures. The materials found here are a composite of both personal papers and
institutional records, since Culin's scholarly research frequently overlapped
with his curatorial duties at the Brooklyn Museum. The collection primarily
covers Culin's Brooklyn Museum tenure (1903-1928), but also includes records
related to his research in Philadelphia as a young man and to his work at the
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (1890-1903). In
addition, some Brooklyn Museum records predate or postdate Culin's years at the
Museum, reflecting this collection's role as a segment of the Records of the
Department of the Arts of Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas.

Language(s)

English, French,
German, Chinese,
Japanese.

Access

This collection is open to researchers by appointment.

Biographical Note

Pretty much all my life I have had to do with a museum and with
museums. I have visited in my professional work the principal museums of the
world and with not a few I have had the privilege of intimate collaboration. At
the same time I have been conscious that museums exert a repressive influence
upon creative effort--that effort which among all human effort I esteem most
highly. . . . Sometimes in unguarded moments I have expressed my feelings, but
I have continued on with no other thought than of making things tell me their
story, and then in trying to coax and arrange them to tell this story to the
world.
1

Although he had no formal training, Robert Stewart Culin (1858-1929)
is known today as an expert on games as well as for his museum work. His
influence was not limited to the two great institutions where he spent his
career--the University of Pennsylvania and the Brooklyn Museum. Culin was also
a founding member of both the American Anthropological Association and the
American Folklore Society, and was an experienced collector and exhibitor who
organized exhibitions at world's fairs in Madrid (1892) and Chicago (1893).

Culin's collecting methodology in many ways exemplified the attitudes
and assumptions of the heyday of anthropological collecting known as the
"museum age" (1875-1925). His major focus was to understand the "language of
things," which resulted in innovative exhibitions and collaboration with
several colleagues, especially in the worlds of fashion and design. He was a
meticulous record keeper whose exhaustive documentation practices, unique to
museums today, created a level of documentation that set standards in the
field. Culin endeavored to document both the meanings and the origins of the
objects he collected.

Culin began his career by studying the life and culture of Chinese
Americans in Philadelphia. During the 1890s, while employed at the University
of Pennsylvania, he turned his attention to Native American culture. After
resigning from the University in 1903, Culin was appointed Curator of the
Brooklyn Museum's newly established Department of Ethnology. Under the
parentage of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (founded 1890), the
Museum was about to embark on a new era, "building up great ethnological
collections, sending out expeditions for the acquiring of antiquities, first
over all America, then over the entire world"
2

Culin immediately set out on a series of field trips through the
Southwest, California, and the Northwest Coast. By 1911, he had collected more
than nine thousand Native American objects and acquired or created an
astonishing level of attendant documentation. Believing that he had collected
everything necessary to represent Native Americans, he turned his interests to
the cultures of Asia and finally Eastern Europe. Culin was concerned not only
with finding and acquiring objects for the Museum, but also with documenting
the maker, the social position of the seller, the circumstances of purchase,
the provenance, the use of the object, and the cultural life of the region.
Thus, the collection includes information on the cultural and historical
context of objects, as seen through Culin's eyes. Like his colleagues, what
Culin collected and decided not to collect (both of which are documented here)
are important parameters in the history of cultural representation in museums.
His opinions and biases are evident throughout the collection.

Culin amassed an extensive research collection, including
correspondence, manuscripts (his own and those of others), reports,
publications, and clippings. A full visual record complementing the written
documentation includes photographs, sketches, watercolors, oil paintings,
postcards, and other illustrative study material. The depth and range of the
information available in the Culin Archival Collection make it a critical
resource for the study of cultural anthropology, art and cultural history,
costume and textile design, ethnology, folklore, linguistics, museology, and
photography on an international scale. The collection contains valuable
information on the development of ethnology as a discipline, on the part played
by museums in presenting and interpreting objects and cultures, and on the
social and economic consequences, within native communities, of large-scale
systematic collecting.

Reflecting Culin's strong interest in Native American cultures, the
Archives provides a vivid account of the circumstances under which he collected
and of the individuals, native and non-native, who assisted him in the field.
His intellectual exchanges with several of his colleagues, such as Franz Boas
from the American Museum of Natural History, George Dorsey at the Field Museum,
and Frank Hamilton Cushing of the Bureau of American Ethnology, are evident in
his extensive correspondence files. Textual and visual materials from Cushing
form an important component of the Culin Archives. Cushing, who lived with the
Zuni between 1879 and 1884, was a major influence on Culin's choice of Zuni as
his main collecting focus in the Southwest. Because of their close personal
friendship, Culin acquired a large collection of sketches, photographs, and
notes from Cushing's estate; the accompanying correspondence between Culin and
Cushing provides a detailed picture of their collaboration.

Culin was among the first curators to recognize the museum
installation as an art form in itself and to display ethnological collections
as art objects, not as mere specimens. He had a revolutionary interest in the
interchange between museum curatorship and contemporary costume and textile
designers. Through his close professional relationship with M. D. C. Crawford
of
Women's Wear he brought the Museum's
collections to the attention of the design community. Culin established a study
room in the Museum for designers to view the collections and organized
traveling exhibitions for department stores around the country. The Crawford
correspondence and writings are an important reflection of the evolution of a
school of American design. Culin's friendship with artists is also evident in
the collection, which contains correspondence from Thomas Eakins and the
designer Ruth Reeves, among others.

The following Culin obituary contains a summation of his work:

Under his direction the Museum attained an international reputation,
not merely as a rich storehouse of ethnologic material . . . but also as a
factory of ideas. He liked to think of a museum--to quote his own words--"not
as a place of antiquities and relics, but as preserving the seed of things
which may blossom and fruit again" through modern effort. As a result of this
point of view, he encouraged in practical ways the use of the Museum material
by students, designers and manufacturers, in order that the industrial and
artistic life of the country might benefit from it to the full.
3

Administrative Notes

Custodial history

A year after Culin's death in 1929, the Brooklyn Museum purchased
his library and archival collection from his widow, an acquisition that
included both institutional records and personal papers. The library materials
were accessioned into the Museum Library and the archival materials were placed
in storage. The bulk of the Culin Archival Collection remained there until the
1970s, although some of the expedition reports and parts of the correspondence
files were removed by the Museum Library and several curatorial departments
over the years. In 1980, Chief Librarian Margaret B. Zorach surveyed curatorial
departments and created a list of materials separated from the collection.

In 1984, with grant support from the National Science Foundation,
curatorial staff in the Department of African, Oceanic, and New World Art (now
the Department of the Arts of Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas) undertook
an inventory of the Native American object collections that had been acquired
by Culin. As part of the project, staff organized archival materials that
related to the Native American collections in order to gain access to the
critical object documentation they contained. The remaining archival materials
were removed from storage in 1986 as part of a National Historical Publications
and Records Commission grant-funded project that supported the organization of
the Museum Archives. Also in 1986, a grant was received from the National
Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, for the Museum Library to
preserve rare research material that was originally acquired by Culin.

In 1991, the Native American archival materials were reunited with
the rest of the Culin Archival Collection. That same year, Culin and the Native
American objects he collected were the subject of an exhibition and catalogue,
Objects of Myth and Memory: American Indian Art at The Brooklyn Museum, which
was organized by Diana Fane. This was the first major effort to reconstruct
Culin's collecting and exhibition methodologies in relation to the objects
themselves. The Culin Archival Collection was a primary resource for the
exhibition and catalogue research and, indeed, several items from the Archival
Collection, including one of the Expedition Reports, were displayed in this
major traveling exhibition.

In 1992, the Museum Library received a two-year grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities to preserve and arrange the Culin
Archival Collection. The grant, from the Preservation and Access Program,
allowed the Museum to accomplish the following: organization of the collection
into a logical series; preservation of materials, including reproduction,
rehousing and treatment when appropriate; creation of folder-level descriptions
and data entry; inventory of all visual materials; a survey of Culin records in
other North American repositories; creation of MARC/AMC records in RLIN; and
writing and distribution of this finding aid. Treatment of several photographs
was accomplished with funding from the New York State Library
Conservation/Preservation Program in 1994.

With increased accessibility, the Culin Archival Collection housed
at the Brooklyn Museum of Art now serves as the core documentation of Culin's
career and the Museum collections he acquired.

Access tools

In addition to this finding aid, several database tables have been
developed to provide more detailed access to the collection: folder-level
descriptions, an index to the Expedition Reports, and inventories of Expedition
Report illustrations and of photographs.

The folder description database provides free-text search
capability to brief synopses of folder contents for all materials in the
collection. Thus, researchers may specify names, topics, titles, and types of
materials (i.e. clippings, brochures) that are of interest and receive a list
of folders whose descriptions contain those terms. The date range information
included in the database allows researchers to select materials from a
particular part of Culin's life. It should be noted that, although the folder
descriptions are extensive, they are by no means exhaustive. Only information
deemed of some significance was recorded.

The expedition reports present the researcher with a difficult
problem, since the only original point of access is Culin's itinerary.
Therefore, both texts and images have been indexed in separate database tables.
The primary access point for the images (photographs, art works, postcards, and
ephemera) is the original caption (both Culin's caption and any printed
information); when necessary, descriptive captions were created. Photographs in
other series have been inventoried in the same manner.

Processing, arrangement and description

Culin project staff observed the following processing guidelines:
all foreign matter was removed and, when necessary, replaced with stable
materials; folded materials were flattened; deteriorating paper was photocopied
and removed; oversized materials were removed to appropriate containers;
photographs were removed and placed in photograph storage; all materials
removed were replaced by a separation sheet noting their disposition.

Because the collection was very disordered and had been worked on
at various times over the years, an organizational scheme was created by
project staff. This scheme was intended to provide a framework based on the
perceived order and logic of the materials; decisions that would have required
major reorganization (for example, bringing together all exhibition information
in one series) were rejected. Folders retain their original contents (though
some have been combined) and folders that were found in groups remain together.

Series and subseries titles reflect the imposed scheme; folder
titles, whenever possible, transcribe information from the original folder or
enclosure. Folder descriptions were created during processing and are intended
to provide information on significant correspondents and topics covered.

Terminology and Abbreviations

The title, "Culin Archival Collection," reflects the need to
differentiate the archival holdings from the objects that Culin acquired, which
were already known in the Museum as the "Culin Collection."

In creating folder descriptions, project staff used Culin's own
words when transcribing titles or describing records but have used more
up-to-date terminology for native groups and names of regions in the finding
aid. In particular, there is a consciously chosen dichotomy between Culin's use
of "American Indian" and the use of "Native American" in the finding aid. In
the database, spelling has generally been regularized to make searching more
effective.

The Culin Archival Collection documents the life and work of
ethnologist and museum curator Stewart Culin; his role in developing the
collections of the Department of Ethnology at the Brooklyn Museum (now the
Brooklyn Museum of Art); his efforts to present the collections to the public
through exhibitions, installations, and public program; and his research on
Native American, Asian, and Eastern European cultures. The materials found here
are a composite of both personal papers and institutional records, since
Culin's scholarly research frequently overlapped with his curatorial duties at
the Brooklyn Museum. The collection primarily covers Culin's Brooklyn Museum
tenure (1903-1928), but also includes records related to his research in
Philadelphia as a young man and to his work at the University of Pennsylvania
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. In addition, some Brooklyn Museum records
predate or postdate Culin's years at the Museum, reflecting this collection's
role as a segment of the Records of the Department of the Arts of Africa, the
Pacific, and the Americas.

The collection is comprised of a wide variety of materials,
including: correspondence; expedition records, including field diaries,
reports, and acquisition and expense records; exhibition and installation
records; object records, including inventories, acquisition records, and
research files; writings, both published and unpublished; research materials,
including photographs, clippings, documentary art work, and publications;
records of a personal nature, such as scrapbooks and family correspondence;
financial records; and a variety of ephemera.

Culin's voluminous correspondence and his expedition reports form the
heart and bulk of this collection, as they are the most complete and clear in
their representation of Culin's work. The expedition reports are more than a
dry recitation of items collected, from whom and where they were obtained;
Culin's reports are filled with personal observations and reflections that
bring the collecting process alive. The correspondence is revelatory in its
abundance and diversity, documenting Culin's professional work as well as his
private interests. Correspondence with his peers at the Museum, fellow
ethnologists, collectors, and dealers are intermixed with personal letters to
family and friends. In many cases, a personal bond is developed from a
professional relationship, as seen in the letters to ethnologist Frank Hamilton
Cushing (Bureau of American Ethnology), artist Thomas Eakins, and fashion
expert M. D. C. Crawford (editor, Women's Wear, Fairchild Publications).

Institutional records documenting the work of the Brooklyn Museum's
Department of Ethnology are represented not only in a self-contained series,
but also appear in other series throughout the collection. Culin's most
important projects are often documented in several series, including general
correspondence, exhibitions, and writings files in addition to the Department
of Ethnology files. Many records document the systematic aspects of Culin's
curatorial work, among them chapbooks, catalogue cards, ledgers, financial
records, and exhibition labels. The 22,000 catalogue cards alone comprise fully
one half of the shelf space of this collection.

The writings found here reveal much about Culin's scholarly activities
and interests. Research notes, manuscripts and typescripts, articles, and
lectures are found throughout the collection. The range of his work stretches
from brief pieces on ethnological topics and short stories drawn from his own
experiences to lengthy typescripts for two unpublished books.

Other important elements include the Cushing collection, which
contains material that grew out of a collaborative effort between Culin and
Frank Hamilton Cushing to document games of the world. Cushing's correspondence
and the accompanying collection of sketches and photographs provide valuable
documentation of his research methods. Special projects and organizations with
which Culin was involved, such as expositions, professional groups, and the
Brinton memorial, are also documented.

Culin's abilities as an inveterate collector went beyond his work for
the Museum collections; the results are evident in the many interesting and
important collections of ephemeral and printed material that exist throughout
this collection. There is a large collection of didactic and illustrative
material, as well as scrapbooks documenting his interest in the
Chinese-American community, World War I international politics, and his own
professional and personal life.

Additional records from Culin's tenure, particularly those relating
to art objects in the collection, are still to be found in the Registrar's
Office and some curatorial departments.

Throughout Stewart Culin's professional life there was a constant
stream of correspondence between him and his colleagues and peers. This series
covers correspondence with Culin's fellow museum professionals, artists and
designers, dealers, traders and collectors, exposition directors and
exhibitors, students and would-be protégés, editors, authors, translators, and
merchants. There are also many letters of appreciation or query from the
general public familiar with his work. The strength of this collection of
letters is in its diversity and depth in both subjects and range of
correspondents.

It should be noted that the subseries are all interrelated and are
separated only because of form or arrangement. With the exception of subseries
1.1, all contain correspondence that is closely related to Series 3: Department
of Ethnology.

Subseries 1.1: University of Pennsylvania
appointment

Dates

6/1899-10/1899

Extent

1 folder (0.1
l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

This subseries contains letters of recommendation for Culin's
appointment at the University of Pennsylvania as Lecturer in Ethnography and
American Archaeology. The respondents to W. Romaine Newbold's (Dean of the
Department of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia)
letter of request for recommendation include Adolf Bastian (Director, Museum
für Völkerkunde, Berlin), Daniel Brinton (Professor of Anthropology, University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia), George Dorsey (Curator, Field Columbian Museum,
Chicago), and William Holmes (Curator, United States National Museum,
Washington, D.C.). The letters are laudatory and specifically cite Culin's
articles and exhibitions.

Subseries 1.2: correspondence (incoming and
outgoing)

Dates

1866-1922

Extent

5 DB, 3 photos (2.0
l.f.)

Organization

Arranged alphabetically

Reflecting Culin's work as an ethnologist, these letters come
primarily from colleagues and peers in the profession. Most of the letters
concern issues directly related to collecting or to the profession itself,
though there is a small amount that covers his personal or social life. While
the majority of this subseries is letters written to Culin, a few of his
responses are also included.

Curator George Dorsey (Field Columbian Museum, Chicago) writes
of collecting trips in Spain, China, and Japan. Thomas Keam, a collector and
trader of Native American objects, discusses Navajo and Zuni objects and
cultural traditions. An early correspondent is Lee Chin Sun, who writes of the
difficulty of learning English and of being Chinese in America; he expresses
his gratefulness to Culin for helping him to make the transition. While Culin's
expertise on games and gambling devices is evidenced in letters from colleagues
and students, his correspondence extends well beyond the world of museums and
academia. For example, there are letters concerning the translation of Korean
texts related to games from a member of the Korean Legation. Attorneys also
made inquiries about games such as Parcheesi, seeking Culin's advice in the
initiation or resolution of lawsuits.

Several of the writers corresponded with Culin over long periods
of time. Charles H. Read, whose career at the British Museum was
contemporaneous with Culin's, maintained both professional and social contact
with Culin for thirty years. The American painter Thomas Eakins kept in contact
with Culin during the last third of the artist's life. He wrote of their common
interest in the Oriental Club and the Faculty Club in Philadelphia. He also
discussed works of art (both his and works by others), including his portrait
of Frank Hamilton Cushing, and the various social engagements that were shared
with Culin (including a boxing match!).

Culin's relationship with the Brooklyn Museum is also traced in
these letters. The letter from Franklin W. Hooper, Director of the Brooklyn
Institute of Arts and Sciences (the Brooklyn Museum's parent organization),
inviting Culin to be Curator of the newly formed Department of Ethnology is
included here. And, too, discussion of the possibility of Culin leaving the
Brooklyn Museum apparently for a newly planned Philadelphia museum of art is
found in the 1915-16 letters of both John Wanamaker and Charles H. Read.

Subseries 1.3: correspondence (outgoing)

Dates

1903-1907

Extent

1 volume (0.1
l.f.)

Organization

Arranged alphabetically

This letter press book contains copies of Culin's letters
written during his first four years at the Brooklyn Museum. The letters
primarily concern museum business and the collecting of Native American
materials in the Southwest.

Of the 202 letters, nearly half are written to Franklin W.
Hooper, Director of the Brooklyn Institute and Culin's primary supervisor,
regarding a range of topics from the acquisition of collections to the security
of Culin's office during his absence while on collecting expeditions. Included
are such topics as Native American objects traded to the Field Columbian
Museum, Native Americans of the Southwest, Japan, acquisition expenses, games,
gambling sticks, and general museum business. Culin's letters to Alfred G.
Mayer (Curator-in-Chief, the Brooklyn Museum) discuss Southwest Native American
topics, including the Zuni costume worn by fellow ethnologist Frank Hamilton
Cushing, and the portrait of Cushing by Thomas Eakins. Other important
correspondents include George Dorsey (Field Columbian Museum, Chicago) and
Andrew Vanderwagen, a trader in Native American objects.

Subseries 1.4: correspondence (incoming and
outgoing)

Dates

1918-1929

Extent

28 DB, 90 photos (11.75 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

A large and diverse collection of materials, this subseries
details Culin's daily museum, professional, scholarly, and personal activities.
Of primary importance is the wide-ranging correspondence that discusses the
acquisition, interpretation, and display of artifacts, as well as documentation
of museum administrative matters. Culin's influence and resources went far
beyond the Brooklyn Museum, as evidenced by his correspondence with an
international community ranging from museum personnel to people in the design
and textile industry, dealers and collectors both professional and amateur, and
a warm circle of personal friends. The development of Culin's extensive
research library is documented here; his generosity is evident in frequent
loans of books and objects to individuals studying a wide variety of topics.
Included in this subseries are many clippings and ephemeral materials and a
small number of photographs and typescripts. It should be noted that, while
some of these were physically or intellectually attached to specific letters,
others appear to have been included only because of the dictates of the
chronological filing system.

A considerable amount of correspondence with the directors,
trustees, and colleagues at the Brooklyn Museum, among them Frank Babbott,
Edward Blum, and Walter Crittenden (trustees) and W. H. Fox (Director),
document museum activities in great detail. The topics range from purchases and
gifts to the Brooklyn Museum, loans to other institutions and department
stores, the Museum Governing Committee, and major installations such as the
Rainbow House (1925-26) and exhibitions such as Primitive Negro Art (1923).

Ever vigilant in the search for new acquisitions, Culin's
correspondence reveals the wide range of resources that he drew upon for
purchases and donations to the Brooklyn Museum. From dealers and collectors to
the missionary just returned from Asia, Culin made queries to or received
queries from all possible sources. For example, he communicated with dealer
William O. Oldman regarding objects from Africa, Tibet, Morocco, and the Middle
East; with Hassan Khan Monif, owner of the Persian Antique Gallery in New York
City, concerning Persian textiles and the Hamza-nama miniature paintings; and
with Edward Barrett, an importer with offices in New York and Siberia, about
Chinese prayer boards and curtains, as well as decorative arts from Tibet.
Other notable dealers include Wise & Co. and Yamanaka & Co.

One example of Culin's many acquisitions are the nine folios of
the Hamza-nama, an important series of Indian miniature paintings illustrating
the life of Mohammad's uncle Amir Hamza. Culin corresponded with Museum
Director William Henry Fox; trustees Frank Babbott and William Crittenden;
dealer Monif; German ethnologist and archaeologist Albert A. von leCoq; the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Edward Stevens, Librarian of Pratt Institute; and
M. D. C. Crawford, Women's Wear editor, concerning the purchase and provenance
of these paintings.

Among Culin's peers and colleagues in the United States and
Europe, Louis Clarke (Curator, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology
and Ethnology, Philadelphia), John deVegh (Director, National Museum of Applied
Art, Budapest), Berthold Laufer (Curator of Ethnology, Field Columbian Museum,
Chicago), Charles Lummis (ethnologist and founder of the Southwest Museum, Los
Angeles) are a few of the primary correspondents. The mutual concerns of
collecting, exhibition, and publishing appear frequently in these letters.
There are also letters from directors and curators at the British Museum; the
Commercial Museum, Philadelphia; the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago; the
National Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York; the Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the
American Museum of Natural History, New York; the Museum of the American
Indian, Heye Foundation, New York; the Pennsylvania Museum of Art (now the
Philadelphia Museum of Art); and the ;Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

In addition to museum professionals, Culin also had a close
working relationship with designers and the staff of design institutes, textile
manufacturers, and department stores. Aaron & Company, Abraham &
Straus, Arditti & Sons, Blanck & Co., Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor,
Macy & Co., A. Namm & Sons, Wanamaker Co., Edward L. Mayer & Co.,
and Pratt Institute were all a part of a cooperative circle with Culin. Culin
supplied study pieces for the design institutes and manufacturers and arranged
for loans of exhibition material to department stores. This relationship is
particularly evident in the Primitive Negro Art exhibition (1923), where
textile patterns created from Museum objects were used in the creation of new
lines of textiles and clothing. The textiles were not only marketed in the
department stores but also became a part of the exhibition itself. There is
also some correspondence with those who were critical or were aware of
criticism of Culin's close work with designers and department stores.

The relationship between the Brooklyn Museum and Pratt
Institute is further accounted for in correspondence with Frederic B. Pratt
(President) and William Longyear (Professor, School of Fine and Applied Arts),
among others. Activities included inviting Pratt students to study in the
Museum and display their work in student exhibitions. Frederic Pratt also
purchased objects that Culin wanted to acquire for the Museum's collection.
Culin, too, assisted in arranging exhibitions at Pratt, including the German
Textiles exhibition (1924).

Culin's close working relationship with M. D. C. Crawford
(editor, Women's Wear, Fairchild Publications) is extensively documented. Their
correspondence is the most frequently encountered in this subseries, with
letters between the two men found in two-thirds of the folders. Among the
wide-ranging subjects are the International Congress of Americanists, the
International Silk Exposition, department stores, the Primitive Negro Art
exhibition, development of a study room for designers, textiles, Museum
acquisitions, the Pratt Peasant Costume exhibition (1924), the Rainbow House
installation, Culin's Road to Beauty manuscript, the Philadelphia
Sesquicentennial (1926), the History of the Blouse exhibition at the United
Waist League (1922), object loans, and Crawford's books, The Heritage of Cotton
(1924) and The History of Silk (1925).

Culin's collaboration with Crawford provided the foundation for
the Museum's Industrial Division (1935-46) and Design Laboratory (founded
1947). This collaborative spirit was also reflected in other ongoing
professional relationships with designers. For example, the artist Ruth Reeves
enjoyed a long and productive association with Culin. Her letters are
accompanied by clippings of her lectures and her fashion designs, which were
reproduced in Women's Wear illustrations, Christmas cards that she designed,
and a numbered etching. Culin's support for designers was not only intellectual
but also extended to loans of objects and participation in programs; he
conferred with Elizabeth Alexander regarding Museum doll and mask loans for
exhibitions at the Arden Gallery, with the Neighborhood Playhouse and Lee
Simonson (Theatre Guild) about costume loans for performances, and with the Art
Alliance on the subject of art competitions.

In Culin's correspondence, the boundaries between the
professional and the personal are often discarded. When he first visited
Hungary in 1921, as the country struggled to recover from World War I, he met
John deVegh, Director of the National Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest. Culin
hired deVegh to ship back his purchases, starting a correspondence that gives a
vivid portrait of Hungary at that time, including the difficulties faced by the
Hungarian museum. In response to deVegh's letters, Culin attempted to find
outlets where Hungarian embroidery could be sold and lectured on Hungarian arts
to bring the plight of the country to the attention of Americans. In these
efforts Culin corresponded with Charles Winter of the Hungarian Consulate,
Walter T. Swingle of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the
editor of the Hungarian newspaper Szabadsày. Culin's correspondence with
refugee Anna Igumnova, a widow whom he met during that same trip, provides a
parallel view of life in eastern Europe at that time, focusing on an individual
rather than an institution.

Culin's family life is also documented sporadically throughout
this series. His wife, the artist Alice Mumford Culin, loaned paintings to
other institutions, and Culin often acted as her agent in these matters. She
also painted works related to the Museum collections; Culin discussed these
works with his colleagues. The education of Culin's step daughter, Penelope, is
another family concern addressed in this subseries, as are housing and
financial matters.

Interspersed with the correspondence is a large collection of
clippings, many from
Women's Wear's"Design Department"
and "Romance of Merchandise" columns. The
Women's Wearclippings appear most
regularly during the first five years (1919-23) of this subseries, and Culin's
byline appears on a small percentage of them. There are many clippings
documenting the effect of Brooklyn Museum exhibitions and programs on the
general population, textile manufacturers, and the museum community in general.
For example, one clipping documents the 1921 efforts of Mayor Fiorello
Laguardia to install study rooms modeled on those Culin had set up at Brooklyn
for designers at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of
Natural History. Clippings of newspaper reviews and synopses of Culin's
lectures and exhibitions; articles about such topics as Asia, games, clothing,
and textiles; and obituaries can be found throughout these correspondence
files.

Clippings and correspondence in this subseries document Culin's
lectures at various institutions (lecture texts appear in Series 5). His
lectures at the Brooklyn Museum, addressing such topics as divination and
fortune telling, dolls, playing cards, chess, and puzzles, are similarly
chronicled.

A diverse collection of photographs related or attached to the
correspondence illustrates and enlivens this subseries. The images include
exhibitions such as the History of Cotton as Art and Exhibition of the Arts of
the American Indian sponsored by the National Merchandise Buyers' Fair at the
Grand Central Galleries in New York (1925); store window displays; objects from
Mesoamerica, Africa, Korea, China, Japan, and eastern Europe; and a wide
variety of objects, among them dolls, pottery, gloves, costumes, baskets, and
tapestries.

Series 2: Collecting expeditions

Dates

1898-1928 (bulk 1903-1928)

Extent

31 volumes, 4 DB, 3 PB, .5SB, 2PBphotos (11.25 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by record format

2.1

expedition reports

2.2

chapbooks

2.3

financial records

2.4

Tschudy paintings

Culin's primary responsibility at the Brooklyn Museum was to
develop the collections of the newly formed Department of Ethnology. Rather
than remaining in Brooklyn and purchasing objects from dealers and collectors,
Culin took an active approach of systematic ethnological collecting, traveling
widely to seek out the most representative and complete sets of objects: "the
general policy of this department of the Museum as decided upon at its
inception was that of a dependence, as far as possible, upon its own
expeditions for exhibition material"
5This method draws on Culin's experience at the University of
Pennsylvania, as documented in the three pre-Brooklyn Museum expeditions found
in this series.

Culin's Brooklyn Museum expeditions fall into three "units":
Native American cultures (1903-08, 1911, 1917); Asia (1909, 1912-13, 1913-14);
and eastern Europe (1920-28). His goal was to develop comprehensive collections
in each area and the expeditions were planned as a continuing program to that
end, as noted by Culin in the Museum's Annual Reports of 1904, 1905, and 1913.

The initial focus on Native American cultures was justified by
Culin--they were "nearest at hand . . . of the greatest scientific importance
as well as of general interest"
6--and was driven by the prevailing view that Native American
cultures were vanishing. Culin continued to concentrate on Native American
culture until 1911, when he in essence declared the field exhausted and the
collection he assembled for Brooklyn complete.

In the final years of Culin's American collecting, however, a new
direction developed. "In the year 1909, it was concluded that however valuable
these [Indian] collections might be in themselves, other fields would prove
more immediately helpful through the possibility of the application of the
collection to the needs of the American artists in connection with industry.
This led to the creation of the Oriental collections, the second unit. This
practical employment of the Museum's collections led to an examination of other
fields, nearer even than the Oriental, leading to the European ethnographical
collection, the third unit, from Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Rumania."
7

Culin's collecting expeditions resulted in a rich trove of
documentary material about these cultures. Most important are the diary-style
expedition reports, which are supplemented by illustrations, ephemera, and
appendices. Chapbooks and financial records detail Culin's expenses and
purchases. Museum Artist Herbert B. Tschudy accompanied Culin on several
expeditions and created a series of watercolors and oil paintings, many of
which were used in the Brooklyn Museum installations on the American Southwest
and Northwest Coast.

The following list notes the geographic areas and tribal groups
visited for each expedition (the former are condensed from the report
itineraries, and the latter were identified by curator Ira Jacknis in his 1985
guide to the collection). However, Culin made frequent day trips to different
sites in the vicinity of those noted below and may well have visited or
discussed other tribal groups. The researcher is urged to consult the reports
themselves for more detailed information.

Subseries 2.1: expedition reports

Dates

1898-1928

Extent

31 volumes, 3DB, .5 SB, 2 PB photos
(11 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

On his many collecting expeditions, Culin kept detailed
documentation of the people he met, the communities he visited, and the objects
he acquired. Although Culin's manuscript notebooks are extant only for the 1926
and 1927 trips (an undated diary also exists), formal typescripts of the
diaries were prepared on his return for presentation to Museum trustees. These
expedition reports are heavily illustrated, containing photographs, drawings,
newspaper clippings, correspondence, postcards, and assorted ephemera Culin
collected in his travels.

Descriptive emphasis in the reports is on collecting: from whom
and under what circumstances objects were obtained; in many cases the history
and use of the object are detailed. Not all acquisitions are included, however,
nor are objects always positively identified, and there are occasionally gaps
where insertion of names of people, places, and objects seems to have been
intended. Museum Registrar Barbara LaSalle noted accession numbers in some
volumes during her tenure (1963-89). Culin's chapbooks and purchase lists
(subseries 2.2 and 2.3) provide additional data on his acquisitions, as do the
catalogue cards and ledger books found in Series 4.

In addition to his collecting activities, Culin's narrative is
also devoted to description of other museums and their exhibitions; his visits
to collectors, dealers, donors, and makers of objects; and often extensive
description of his physical journeying, fellow passengers, lodgings, meals, and
entertainments. Two reports also include detailed appendices:
Census of the Zuni Indians (1904),
by Dr. E. F. Davis; and
Origin of the Navajo Order of Naal'oi baka,
by Father Juvenal Schnorbus, and
Zuni Notes, a transcription of
interviews with Nick Graham (Zuni Nick), both from 1907.

From 1904 to 1923, decorative frontispieces were created for
the reports by Museum Artist Herbert Bolivar Tschudy (H. B. Judy), who
accompanied Culin on several expeditions (see also subseries 2.4). In most
cases, an itinerary precedes the narrative and includes place of visit,
mileage, mode of travel, and corresponding page numbers. Between 1903 and 1917,
when Culin stopped including mileage in the itineraries, he traveled an astonishing
99,453 miles by rail, steamer, wagon, and on horseback. His travels ranged from
summer journeys of three to four months, to extended trips to Asia that lasted
nearly an entire year.

Culin collected actively on his expeditions throughout North
America and British Columbia, acquiring thousands of objects between 1903 and
1911 and describing many in great detail. The reports for the Southwest contain
many photographs, including images by noted photographers Ben Wittick and A. C.
Vroman, as well as by Culin himself. In comparison, Culin's reports from China
and Japan provide less detailed information about objects, although he
continued to describe his travels in great detail. Though they hold few
original photographs, these later reports are heavily illustrated with
postcards, business cards, menus and other ephemeral material. When Culin
turned his attention to eastern Europe, he focused his collecting on costumes
and textiles, which are depicted in numerous postcards. In addition to
description of his travels, Culin includes a great deal of political commentary
in these later reports.

Several individuals--primarily dealers, collectors, and museum
professionals--feature prominently in the reports, assisting Culin on his
travels and in collecting. On the American trips, traders such as Charles L.
Day, J. L. Hubbell, John Hudson, Thomas Keam, Charles Lummis, C. F. Newcombe,
Andrew Vanderwagen, as well as the Franciscan Brothers at St. Michaels were
instrumental in guiding Culin. In Asia, John Batchelor, Lockwood DeForest, K.
O. Kusakabi, Dr. Neil Gordon Munro, Frederick Starr, Toko Takayemagi, and Yeto
Takemashi provided valuable assistance. Finally, Louis Clarke, John deVegh,
Andrew LeCoq and William O. Oldman are noted in the reports from Culin's
European trips.

The reports in this subseries comprise primarily trips funded
by the Brooklyn Museum's parent organization, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts
and Sciences. Three University of Pennsylvania Museum expeditions are also
included (1900, 1901, and 1902), as well as a folder of menus, bills, flyers,
programs, business cards, and postcards from Culin's first trip to Europe in
1898.

Subseries 2.2: chapbooks

Dates

1903-1929

Extent

24 volumes in one PB (.25 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

A methodical collector, Culin kept track of his travel expenses
and object purchases in a series of pocket notebooks, preserved in this
subseries. The entries are brief, limited to date, a word or two of
description, and price; in some cases Culin later added accession numbers to
the object entries.

Subseries 2.3: financial records

Dates

1903-1928

Extent

1 DB (.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

Upon returning home, Culin was presumably required to submit
expense reports, resulting in the materials in this subseries. Typed purchase
lists, voucher numbers, travel expense lists, and receipts provide a valuable
adjunct to the object documentation in the other subseries. Additional
materials of this type may be found in the Registrar's Office.

Subseries 2.4: Tschudy paintings

Dates

1904-1910, n.d.

Extent

58 items in 2 PB (.5
l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by medium, then chronologically

Museum Artist Herbert B. Tschudy (who used the spelling Judy
until circa 1914) accompanied Culin on several of his early expeditions, as did
New York City artist A. W. Groll, recording scenes on site and in color.
Tschudy's murals and watercolors were installed in the Museum's Gallery of
Ethnology and Department of Natural History. Culin noted in 1905 that "an
attempt has been made by the aid of Mr. Judy's paintings and sketches to give
an idea of the southwestern country and afford an artistic and instructive
setting for the collection"
Tschudy traveled frequently throughout his career; his trips
to the Bahamas, throughout the American West, and to France, Italy, and
Switzerland are documented in Museum records.

Ten small oil paintings on board and forty-eight watercolors,
executed by Tschudy on expeditions between 1904 and 1910, document scenes and
Native American people in New Mexico, Arizona, California, and British
Columbia. A photograph of Tschudy painting in Arizona appears in the 1904
expedition report.

Consisting primarily of correspondence, financial records, and
installation and exhibition documentation, this series of administrative files
tracks the activities of the Department of Ethnology. Though not exhaustive,
this series contains information on the collections acquired by Culin, from
their acquisition to their exhibition. The smaller subseries of reports, daily
notes, and inventories provides more detailed information on some portions of
the collection and on Culin's activities.

There are many gaps in this series, some of which may be due to
Culin's absence while on collecting expeditions.

Subseries 3.1: general correspondence

Dates

1901-1926 (bulk 1903-1918)

Extent

1DB, 3 folders, 10 photos (.75 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically and by subject

Closely related to Series 1: general correspondence
(particularly subseries 1.4), this subseries contains many of the same
correspondents and topics. The Director and curators of the Brooklyn Museum,
publishers and editors, educators, designers, and collectors are all found as
correspondents in these letters. Major topics include the acquisition,
exhibition, and loan of collections ranging from opium pipes to the Samuel P.
Avery cloisonné collection. The initial planning, creation, and reception of a
collections study room for use by student and professional designers is also
found in these letters. In addition, there are clippings, brochures,
invitations, tickets, catalogues, and other ephemeral material, including a
program for Culin's Rainbow House lecture series.

Subseries 3.2: reports

Dates

1905-1928 (bulk 1916-1928)

Extent

2 folders (.1 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

These monthly and annual reports give an overall view of the
work of the department. Annual reports occur sporadically from 1905 to 1922.
Included is a typescript labeled "Department of Ethnology, Statement of Work
Done to January 1905," which summarizes the history of the department and lists
some of the more important acquisitions and exhibitions prior to Culin's coming
to the Museum. In the Brooklyn Museum
Annual Report, these reports appear
as the "Report on the Department of Ethnology" or as a portion of the "Report
of the Director."

The monthly reports (1916-26) are generally one page in length
and do not always appear consistently throughout the year. Some of the monthly
reports are compilations of several months' worth of activity. The reports give
a summary of recent installations, the number of cases constructed for display,
labeling completed, and other information such as Culin's upcoming travel and
collection plans.

Subseries 3.3: daily notes

Dates

1920-1927

Extent

1 folder (.1 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

This chronological log documents Culin's daily work routine,
including visitors, phone calls, meetings, loans, purchases, auctions, and
short journeys. The brief entries, usually three to ten lines long, were
written regularly in 1920 (January to June), 1924-26, and 1927 (February to
October). Culin is referred to as "the Curator" and it is not certain whether
it was Culin or someone else who kept the log.

Subseries 3.4: inventories

Dates

1919-1920, n.d.

Extent

1 folder (.1 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

These lists of Museum storage boxes and filing cases appear to
be the working papers and final copies of inventories taken in 1919 and 1920.
Annotated, the inventories differentiate between material belonging to the
Museum and objects that were a part Culin's personal collection.

Subseries 3.5: : exhibitions &
installations

Dates

1903-1928

Extent

3 folders, 3 PB, 10 photos
.75 (.75 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically and by subject

This subseries consists of exhibition files and labels. The
exhibition files contain material about only three of Culin's exhibitions and
installations:
Primitive Negro Art (1923),
Albanian Costume (1928), and
Japanese Silk Embroidered Tapestries
belonging to Mr. Karl Schraubstadter (1928). Arranged chronologically
within each exhibition file, the documents generally concern the opening events
of the exhibition, including correspondence, clippings, press releases, speech
typescripts, and ephemeral material related to special events or guests invited
to participate. There are also brief typescripts regarding the California and
Northwest Coast Indians, and a press release and clipping about the opening of
the Japanese Gallery in 1927.

The approximately two hundred exhibition labels housed here
make up the greater portion of this subseries and are a useful source of object
documentation. The labels are arranged both by topic and chronologically.
Though not always consistent, the label will generally include the object name
and its date, where and when the object was collected, and the Museum accession
number. Some of the tags and labels appear to have been acquired with the
purchase of a collection. A small amount of miscellaneous material is housed
with the labels, including object tags and lists of objects, which include
accession numbers. Also found here are a few labels attributed to Culin's
successor, Herbert Spinden.

Subseries 3.6: financial records

Dates

1900-1928

Extent

1 DB, 3 folders (.75 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by record format

Consisting mostly of receipts and invoices, this subseries is
arranged chronologically by format. The records document the object name,
price, vendor, and date of purchase during the 1920s. Among these purchases are
the acquisition of African objects from William O. Oldman; Chinese and Albanian
costumes from D. Arditti, importer; Tibetan paintings from Yamanaka & Co.;
copper, wood, and stone figures from S. M. Frank & Co.; and Balinese
paintings from Orientalia. Book purchases for 1900 to 1923 are arranged
alphabetically by bookseller. There are also travel receipts, registered mail
receipts, and some of Culin's personal tax records from the 1920s.

Series 4: Objects

Subseries 4.1: general correspondence

Dates

1894-1928 (bulk 1912-1928)

Extent

1 DB, 105 photos (.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by geographic area

The correspondence between Culin and the various collectors,
traders, and dealers who helped him assemble the Museum collections parallels
and overlaps that found in Series 1 but focuses more specifically on the
objects themselves. Among the geographic areas covered in these letters are
China, India, Japan, Persia, Africa, and eastern Europe. Correspondence with
two important Brooklyn Museum donors, Samuel P. Avery and Robert Woodward,
documents the Museum's cloisonné and jade collections; the purchase of the
Frederick Starr Ainu collection is also covered. There are lists and
typescripts that describe many of the objects in detail, as well as other
materials including notes, memos, clippings, catalogues, labels, business cards,
invoices, statements, receipts, photographs, and samples of forms from the
Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia.

Subseries 4.2: North American Indian

Dates

1891-1927

Extent

1 DB, 1 volume, 62 photos
(.6 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by region

Similar in content and record type to subseries 4.1, the
material here provides details of Culin's extensive work with collectors and
dealers of Native American objects. While the American Southwest is the primary
focus, there is also material on other native groups; among the tribes
represented are the Zuni, Navajo, Hopi, Tlingit, Pomo, Winnebago, Osage, and
Ponca. The letters that describe objects offered for sale are primarily
incoming and so often do not include Culin's responses; thus, the final outcome
of many of the offers is not apparent.

Included in this subseries are an English-Zuni, Zuni-English
dictionary compiled by Andrew Vanderwagen and a typescript by Father Noël
Dumarest, "Notes on Cochiti," with observations on the life passages and
rituals of that tribe. There are also lists of objects available for sale from
various collectors and traders, as well as notes, typescripts, lecture
programs, and photographs.

Subseries 4.3: catalogue cards

Dates

1901-1913

Extent

22,000 cards (31.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged numerically

Each of the 22,000 cards in this subseries contains cataloging
data, including the object number Culin assigned in the field, the Museum
accession number, object name, country or state and locality, date collected,
collector, and funding source, as well as people and notes associated with the
object. In addition to his own acquisitions for the Brooklyn Museum, Culin
cataloged objects that existed in the Museum's collection before his arrival,
which are assigned object numbers 1 through 2900 and dated 1901-2.

Subseries 4.4: ledger books

Dates

1898-1933

Extent

11 volumes (1.75 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged numerically

These eleven ledger books record Culin's acquisitions in
numerical and chronological order (though there are some gaps and backdated
objects). The entries include the Museum accession number, object type,
collection date and place, collector, and price. The first ledger records
acquisitions that occurred before Culin's tenure and new objects continued to
be recorded after Culin's death. Although the ledger book entries were closed
in 1933, annotations continue to be made by the Registrar's Office (now in a
photocopied set of the volumes).

Series 5: Research and writings

Dates

1885-1928,
n.d

Extent

5 DB, 1 volume, 19 photos
(2.5 l.f.)

Organization

5.1:

correspondence and notes

5.2:

lectures and writings

Culin's expansive research interests led him to collect research
materials in many areas to support his work in the Museum as well as his
writings and lectures. Culin wrote much more than was ever actually published
(see bibliography); the articles, lectures, and manuscripts in this series
cover topics from Japanese dolls to Albanian costumes, from mission-style
furniture to wall hangings and painted curtains, and from customs and religion
to dyes and cotton prints. Two typescripts for unpublished books are included
in this series, as are short pieces of fiction and biographical material.

His research and writings about games, for which he is perhaps
best known, are found in Series 7.

Subseries 5.1: correspondence and notes

Dates

1885-1932,
n.d.

Extent

3.5 DB, 2 photos (1.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by subject

Research notes, articles, and correspondence related to the
research and publication of Culin's own writings are found in this subseries.
Though Culin collected articles on diverse subject matter, most of the material
here concerns Asian topics, including a sizable collection of translations of
Japanese texts about customs and objects, among these
The Wonderful News of the
Circumnavigation, a shipwreck account related to the "Narrative of
Nakahama Manjiro" (see subseries 5.2). An illustrated manuscript,
“Haban ceramics, ”is also
included. The correspondence is chiefly related to the publication of Culin's
writings. Among the correspondents are L. D. Froelick (Asia), W. L. Harris and
H. Frohne (
Good Furniture Magazine), L. Davies
(Franklin Printing Co.), and various editors at the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The receipts for writings sold to these and other publications may be found
with the related correspondence. There are also clippings, illustrations,
Chinese paper charms, book catalogs and advertisements, brochures, and
pamphlets.

Subseries 5.2: lectures and writings

Dates

1885-1928,
n.d.

Extent

1.5 DB, 1 volume, 17 photos
(1 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by subject

This subseries contains manuscripts, typescripts, and reprints
of Culin's writings. The subject matter of his writings and lectures varies
widely, but generally falls into the same three categories noted in Series 2:
ethnological studies of Native American, Asian, and eastern European customs
and objects. There are typescripts of lectures about Asian culture and design,
and a bound volume of lectures entitled, Indians of the Southwest. Two major
unpublished typescripts,
“The Road to Beauty” and
“The Narrative of Nakahama
Manjiro”, are included in this subseries, as are a few "Culin stories,"
fictional pieces based upon his experiences.

In a letter to M. D. C. Crawford, Culin described his
Road to Beauty: "Starting with Budapest, it follows
place by place, the story of a search for beauty in its relation to everyday
activities, chiefly textiles and clothes." The twenty-five chapters were to
carry the reader from Budapest to Bucharest; Culin hoped eventually to
supplement the work with a series covering the Orient.
The manuscript was never published, although correspondence
toward that goal may be found throughout the later years of Subseries 1.4.
Culin later reused the title for an article in the
Brooklyn Museum Quarterly,8 a short celebratory address on the opening of the Rainbow
House.

Biographical material, bibliographies of Culin's publications,
reprints of his
“Primitive American Art” and
“The Magic of Color” articles,
and a few pamphlets complete this subseries.

Series 6: Cushing collection

Dates

1881-1900,
n.d.

Extent

6 DB, 1 volume, 2 PB, 2 PB photos
(3 l.f.)

Organization

6.1:

correspondence

6.2:

writings

6.3

sketches

6.4

photographs

Frank Hamilton Cushing (1857-1900), an anthropologist best known
for his work among the Zuni, became acquainted with Culin in Washington at the
Bureau of American Ethnology, where Cushing worked, and through their
participation in exhibitions at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in
1893. Cushing and Culin established a close professional and personal
relationship, in particular collaborating on a massive project to document
games of the world. Cushing's admiration of Culin is clear: "You are imbued
with the spirit and strong breath of the New Anthropology; that is with a
warrant of original thinking."
9

Chronicling Culin and Cushing's collaboration, as well as
Cushing's own work, this series contains letters from Cushing, typescripts and
drafts of his writings, a large group of sketches, and photographs. The Cushing
material, particularly the sketches, presumably came into or remained in
Culin's hands because of the collaborative nature of the two ethnologists' work
and Cushing's premature death. The correspondence is an extension of general
correspondence in Series 1; additional Cushing correspondence may be found in
Series 7: Games.

Subseries 6.1: correspondence

Dates

1893-1900,
n.d

Extent

1 DB (.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

This series consists entirely of incoming letters from Cushing
to Culin, representing one side of a weekly and even daily exchange of letters
that stretched from 1893 until just five days before Cushing's death in April
1900 (Cushing's letter of April 5, 1900, is believed to be the last before his
death). While the primary subject matter of the letters is their collaborative
study of games, Cushing's letters make clear that he and Culin had an ongoing
and intense exchange of ideas about many other aspects of ethnology. The
cross-fertilization of their interests is clear, with connections made between
Native American and Asian games and frequent exchanges of specimens, sketches,
and publications. The positive energy brought to preparing materials on which
the other depended and the pressure of deadlines is also clear from Cushing's
letters. The development of Cushing's theories is evident in explanations of
his ideas.

Cushing's letters reveal not only the professional but also the
personal. His health was a frequent concern, and problems were often detailed
in his letters; Cushing's concern for Culin's health is also evident. The two
visited each other frequently, occasions noted in the letters, and enjoyed a
cordial relationship that included both their wives.

Subseries 6.2: writings

Dates

1884-1899,
n.d

Extent

1 DB (.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arbitrary arrangement

A small group of drafts of letters and texts on loose sheets of
ruled notepad paper, ranging from a page or two to nearly a hundred pages on a
single topic, may be found here. The focus, as above, is primarily on games but
includes writings on Key Marco and other subjects. Small sketches illustrating
the texts occasionally appear. Also included are typescripts of
“An Instance of Zuni Worm
Surgery” and
“Zuni Breadstuff.” The latter,
Cushing's extensive study of Zuni foods (particularly corn) and the myths,
ceremonies, and daily customs associated with them, was published in
The Millstone of Indianapolis, where
it appeared as a series in 1884 and 1885.

Subseries 6.3: sketches

Dates

1881-1896,
n.d.

Extent

4 DB (1.75 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by subject (imposed)

This collection of more than one thousand sketches documents
Cushing's eye for detail. The sketches, ranging from thumbnail pencil drawings
of small objects to completed pen and ink renditions, illuminate an important
facet of Cushing's comparative work and were often used to illustrate published
studies. Several large panels include groups of related sketches and may well
have been didactics for an exhibition or mockups for a planned publication. A
few sketches appear to be in a different hand, but other artists are not
identified.

Subjects range from animal and bird studies to objects from
various cultures, especially the Southwest, and people and landscapes.
Important groups of sketches document the Zuni, including the Hemenway
expedition; Key Marco; and Mesoamerican cultures. When found in storage, the
sketches did not appear to be in any rational original order and have therefore
been arranged by subject or object type with the assistance of anthropologist
David Wilcox, whose notes on the sketches are available to researchers and will
be augmented as further information is discovered.

Also included in this subseries are published versions of
various sketches and maps and a small amount of related textual material,
including letters, clippings, and notes.

Subseries 6.4: photographs

Dates

n.d.

Extent

2 PB, 139 photos (.25 l.f.)

Organization

Arbitrary arrangement

Many photographs, primarily of Mesoamerican and some Native
American objects, supplement the sketches. The images often include groups of
related artifacts with catalogue numbers and frequently show scale by means of a
ruler in the image frame. It appears that they were collected or created as
part of a comparative study.

Series 7: Games

Dates

1871-1927

Extent

3 DB, 12 photos (1.5 l.f.)

Organization

7.1:

North American Indian

7.2

categories

7.3

international

The study of the origin and the historical development of games
was a long-standing interest of Culin and Cushing. From Culin's early work in
Philadelphia on Chinese games and folk customs, to his later research and
publications on Korean and North American Indian games, the range and depth of
Culin's research are shown in this series. In addition to his work on Asian and
North American Indian games, he also conducted research and published writings
on African games and on the more familiar card, dice, and parlor games of the
time.

Subseries 7.1: North American Indian

Dates

1895-1914

Extent

1 DB (.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged alphabetically and by subject

Consisting primarily of correspondence, this subseries is
related to the research and publication of
Games of the North American Indian.
The work began as a collaborative study with Frank Hamilton Cushing (see also
Series 6), who died before its completion; it was eventually completed by Culin
and published in 1907, in the Bureau of Ethnology's 24th
Annual Report. Later appearing as a
separate publication,
Games of the North American Indian
remains Culin's most well known work and is a standard reference on the
subject. The preface asserted that it contained "a classified and illustrated
list of practically all the American Indian gaming implements in American and
European museums, together with a more or less exhaustive summary of the entire
literature of the subject." In his research, Culin drew upon fellow
ethnographers and museums from across the continent seeking to clarify or
uncover new information. A collection of index cards created by George Dorsey
(Field Columbian Museum, Chicago) and several other ethnologists provide
instructions for numerous North American Indian games. Culin also made use of
numerous typescripts and sketches that Frank Hamilton Cushing had completed
prior to his death in 1900. Games was well received, as evidenced by the many
positive reviews and letters contained in this subseries. In addition to the
material mentioned above, there are typescripts, lists of games and gambling
implements, and sketches.

Subseries 7.2: categories

Dates

1871-1927

Extent

1 DB, 4 photos (.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by game type

Organized by type of game or toy (playing cards, dice, dolls or
games), this subseries includes information in the form of correspondence,
manuscripts and typescripts, articles, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings.
There are a number of pen and ink or colored drawings of playing cards, dice,
dolls, and board games from different parts of the world. A small leather-bound
notebook contains Culin's notes (circa 1890-1919) regarding Chinese games,
dominoes and others forms of games. Of particular local interest are notes that
describe the names and rules for games of marbles and the rhymes used in
various street games played by children in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Numerous
clippings about card games (including the type, history, and "evils" associated
with playing the game), catalogs, notes, pamphlets, invoices, advertisements,
and photographs complete this subseries.

Subseries 7.3: international

Dates

1889-1923

Extent

1 DB, 1 folder, 4 photos
(.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by region

Rounding out Culin's studies in games of the world, this
subseries primarily focuses on African and Asian games. The correspondence,
notes, typescripts, and manuscripts trace the development of diverse games and
amusements such as African divining blocks, Egyptian draughts (checkers),
mah-jongg, and Japanese toys, to name a few. A significant amount of
information on the African game of mancala is housed here, including
correspondence with Franz Boas and Frank Hamilton Cushing regarding Culin's
article
“Mancala: The National Game of
Africa,” published in the 1894
Report of the United States National
Museum. The Japanese material includes
“The Companion of Children,” a
list of Japanese toys compiled by Shimizu Seifu, typescripts pertaining to
Japanese toys, including
“The Friends of Children ”(1925)
by Culin, and a series of decorative, colored illustrations, wrappers, and
covers for Japanese toys. There are also a number of clippings, advertisements,
and illustrations.

Series 8: Expositions

Dates

1892-1927 (bulk 1892-1893, 1925-1927)

Extent

3 DB, 1 3 DB, 1 photo photo
1.25

Organization

Arranged by exposition, chronologically

Expositions were central and vital forums for the development of
the science of anthropology in the nineteenth century and were, as well,
central to Culin's own professional growth.
10 Culin was known to have organized exhibitions in at least six
expositions of which this series documents three: the Columbian Historical
Exposition, Madrid (1892-93); the World's Columbian (1893); and the
Philadelphia Sesquicentennial (1926). While not an exhaustive documentation of
Culin's involvement in these expositions, the expositions themselves are well
represented with ephemeral and other printed material that Culin presumably
collected during each exposition, including clippings, programs, illustrations,
calling cards, flyers, menus, tickets, invitations, certificates, and lists.
Not represented in this series is material detailing Culin's preparation and
installation of the exhibitions.

The World's Columbian Exposition is the most completely
represented with a broad range of ephemeral and printed material including a
number of questionnaires by the Anthropological Laboratories of the Department
of Ethnology at the World's Columbian Exposition. In addition to the ephemeral
and printed materials found in this series, there are typescripts of Culin's
experiences and observations at the Madrid exposition as well as an expense
list for toys and other objects purchased during that exposition. Culin's
involvement with the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial, as a member of the New York
State Sesquicentennial committee and as adviser for the Palace of Fashion, is
also documented with correspondence. In an autobiographical essay,
11Culin writes of his participation in the above expositions,
as well as three others: the Atlanta Industrial and Cotton States Exposition
(1895), the Paris Exposition (1900), and the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo
(1901). Series 1 contains letters, certificates, and awards for some of the
expositions, and Series 12 includes clippings related to expositions.

Series 9: Brinton memoriall

Dates

1875-1901
(bulk 1899-1902)

Extent

1 DB, 1 photo (.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by topic

Daniel G. Brinton (1837-1899) was the first university professor
of anthropology in the United States, at the University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia. As a mentor to Culin, Brinton guided him in the study of Native
American language and mythology and drew him into the University Museum in
1890. After Brinton's death in 1899, Culin worked with Helen Abbott Michael and
Sarah Brinton to organize memorial observances and establish a Brinton Chair of
American Archaeology and Ethnology at the University of Pennsylvania.

As part of the memorial project, Culin collected the
documentation needed to create a biography and bibliography of Brinton,
including notes, articles, correspondence, and clippings. Several typescripts
provide a more finished view of portions of this information. A series of
memorial meetings in Philadelphia are also documented here, with invitations,
programs, resolutions, and announcements supplementing the correspondence that
led up to their organization.

Helen Abbott Michael, a chemist and writer who worked with
Brinton, corresponded extensively with Culin. A great deal of effort was
expended on devising a memorial circular to raise money to commission a
portrait of Brinton. Memorial letters were received from Franz Boas, Frank
Hamilton Cushing, George Dorsey, Frederick Hodge, Frederick Ward Putnam and W.
J. McGee, among others, but the circular project was never completed. Brinton's
biography, the various memorial meetings, and the Brinton Chair were also
topics of her letters.

Finally, correspondence with Sarah Brinton and a variety of
colleagues deals with the unfinished business of a scholar's life: unpublished
manuscripts, the disposition of his library and letters, and reminiscences of
his life and death.

Series 10: Organizations and memberships

Dates

1897-
1928

Extent

1 DB, 1 photo (.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by organization

Culin maintained active memberships in professional and social
organizations throughout his career, as documented in his correspondence
(Series 1). Materials contained in this series represent four such
organizations, but consist in most cases of items circulated to members rather
than personal correspondence.

One significant file is on the American Anthropological
Association, chronicling its founding in 1902. Correspondents include W. J.
McGee, George Dorsey, and George Pepper; an abstract of comments following a
1902 planning meeting in Pittsburgh presents a roster of some of the most
important figures in American anthropology. Other materials include a draft
constitution and list of founding members.

Founded in 1875, the International Congress of Americanists was
devoted to studying "the antiquity and development of man in the Western
Hemisphere." Culin's association with the Congress dates back to at least 1893
(see General correspondence 1.2.020); the correspondence, program abstracts,
ephemera, and clippings in this series document the 23rd session, held in
1928.

The purpose of the Salmagundi Club of New York City was to
"promote social intercourse between artists and those interested in the arts."
Culin's file on the Salmagundi Club, which ranges from 1897 to 1911, contains a
collection of ephemera from Club events. Many of the programs, menus, and
invitations are embellished with humorous sketches by members; a few original,
but unsigned, sketches are included.

Culin's enduring interest in Asia is reflected in a collection of
Japan Society materials dating from 1911 to 1919. The programs, announcements,
invitations, membership lists, and tour itineraries provide insight into the
wide range of the Society's activities.

Series 11: Visual materials

Dates

1891 - 1933,
n.d.

Extent

2 PB, 1 SB, 129 photos
(.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged by medium

This series consists of photographs, published illustrations, and
postcards that do not directly link to textual materials in other series. Many
of the items were added to the Culin Archival Collection by past curatorial
staff primarily because of their subject matter.

Among the 129 photographs are images of the Southwest and
California, including Native American people and scenes and photographs of many
Asian and European objects. The small collection of thirty-one photographic
postcards also depicts Native American people and scenes, as well as objects in
museum collections. Included among the postcards are two stereopticon views of
Pueblo women.

A group of images removed from publications, many of them from
Bureau of American Ethnography reports, documents Pueblo life and the Zuni,
Navajo, and Hopi people. A portrait of Cushing is also included. Many of these
images are mounted on cardboard and may have been used as didactic materials.
Other illustrations, primarily of objects, are mounted on Culin's standard
heavy backing paper and were probably part of his research collection.

Finally, the series includes a few drawings and watercolors: a
pen and ink drawing of a Pueblo Indian by J. Scott (1891), four floral designs
in watercolor, and a group of three watercolor "drop window arrangements by
Russian artists." The last appear to be stage designs.

Series 12: Printed matter

Dates

1875-1928

Extent

11 volumes, 2 PB, 8 DB
(6.0 l.f.)

Organization

12.1

scrapbooks

12.2

periodicals

12.3

clippings

Culin collected documentary materials to support his work,
creating an extensive research collection. Materials in this series supplement
those found in other parts of the collection, particularly Series 5, but the
focus of this series is primarily on material that appeared in published
sources. Also found in this series are scrapbooks containing clippings and
other materials that document Culin's own publications.

Subseries 12.1: scrapbooks

Dates

1875-1903

Extent

11 volumes (2.0 l.f.)

Organization

Arranged chronologically

The two types of scrapbooks found here are those containing
documentation for Culin's research and those chronicling his publications and
life. The materials in this subseries cover the years leading up to Culin's
appointment to the Brooklyn Museum.

Two bound volumes contain clippings relating to the Chinese
community in America between 1882 and 1889, the years in which Culin was
pursuing research in that area. Entries include not only newspapers clippings,
documenting news as well as the political and social biases of the times, but
also materials from various Chinese communities on the East Coast.

Several published works grew out of Culin's interest in the
Chinese-American community; a series of four "acknowledgments" scrapbooks
document their release, critical reception, and distribution, with clippings,
reviews, copyright registrations, and many letters ordering or acknowledging
receipt of the texts. The publications so documented are
China in America: A Study in the Social Life
of the Chinese in the Eastern Cities of the United States (New York and
Philadelphia: Franklin Printing Co., 1887);
Chinese Games with Dice and Dominoes
(Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1895);
Chinese Secret Societies in the United
States (Lancaster, Pennsylvania: American Folklore Society, 1890);
Gambling Games of the Chinese in
America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1891);
Korean Games, with Notes on the
Corresponding Games of China and Japan (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania, 1895).

The remaining five scrapbooks provide a broader view of Culin's
life and career. Of particular note is one volume (1889-98) devoted to his
participation as a founding member of the American Folklore Society; since
early Society records were destroyed in a fire, this scrapbook, which contains
programs, invitations, and clippings detailing Society meetings, is an
invaluable resource. The personal and professional scrapbooks document Culin's
work at the University Museum and his appointment to the Brooklyn Museum as
well as, to some extent, his research interests. Several folders of related but
unmounted clippings may be found in Subseries 12.3.

Subseries 12.2: periodicals

Dates

1917 -
1928

Extent

2 PB (.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arbitrary arrangement

A small collection of French, German, and American periodicals
accompanied the Culin collection, although a definitive link to Culin (other
than the dates) has not been established. Many of these are publications of a
humorous or semierotic nature.

Subseries 12.3: clippings

Dates

1884-1928 bulk
1920-1928 (bulk 1920-1928)

Extent

8 DB (3.5 l.f.)

Organization

Arrnaged chronologically within topic

A large group of clippings documenting Culin's career and
research interests (1884-1923) was segregated into this subseries on the basis
of format; these materials may be considered an extension of the scrapbooks
found in Subseries 12.1.

The bulk of this subseries consists of two extensive clipping
collections created by Culin, one on the relationship between Japan and China
and a smaller collection documenting Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The materials
are very different from the rest of the Culin Archival Collection since they
deal primarily with news and politics rather than Culin's work in ethnology.
The reasons behind the project, however, are clarified in letters from 1920 and
1921:

For a long time I have been deeply conscious of the vital
importance to us of a more correct understanding of the social, political, and
industrial conditions in the Far East with especial relation to China. . . . It
was evident that Japan was carrying on an active and successful propaganda in
the United States, all leading up to the exploitation of China. . . . My
increasing interest led me to follow up, collect and collate the news from the
Far East as it appeared from day to day.

Since my return I have carefully collected and collated all
the news purporting to come from Hungary. . . . [It] seems to proceed in
greater part from Vienna, to be full of malice, and to be intended to prejudice
Hungary in the minds of the American people.

The clippings in these two compilations, while revealing little
about Culin's work other than his personal commitment to the people who created
the objects he collected, are a valuable source of information on post-World
War I international politics.

Research & writings [5.2.005]: lectures. (1904)

Bound volume. Indians of the Southwest: A Course of
Lectures Delivered in the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts &
Sciences. Chapters: Arts & Industries; Customs & Religion; The Zuni;
The Navajo.

Games [7.3.006]: Japanese. (1925-n.d.)

Manuscripts: The Companion of Children; The Book on
Japanese Toys. Typescripts: The Friends of Children, by Culin; Japanese toy
stores; collectors, museums; owl, dove, cat, dog, deer, and snake toys; masks;
water flowers; bells.

Printed matter [12.3.099]: Hungary &
Czechoslovakia. (1922-1924)

Bibliography

Numismatics: Notes upon the Collection of
Chinese Coins Belonging to the Museum. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania
Museum of Art, 1885.

The Religious Ceremonies of the Chinese in the
Eastern Cities of the United States. Privately printed. Philadelphia
Oriental Club, 1887.

“China in America: A Study in the Social
Life of the Chinese in the Eastern Cities of the United States.” Paper
read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York.
Privately printed. Philadelphia, 1887.

“The Practice of Medicine by the Chinese in
America.”
The Medical and Surgical Reporter 56
(1887): 355-57.

Chinese Games with Dice. Philadelphia:
Franklin Printing Co., 1889.

“The I Hing or Patriotic Rising: A Secret
Society among the Chinese in America.” Numismatic and Antiquarian
Society of Philadelphia,
Proceedings, 1887-89. Philadelphia:
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, 1890.

“Chinese Secret Societies in the United
States.”
Journal of American Folklore 3 (1890):
39-43.

“Customs of the Chinese in America.”
Journal of American Folklore 3 (1890):
191-200.

“Street Games of Boys in Brooklyn, New
York.”
Journal of American Folklore 4 (1891):
221-37.

The Gambling Games of the Chinese in America:
Fan T'an, the Game of Repeatedly Spreading Out, and Pak Kop Piu, or the Game of
White Pigeon Ticket. University of Pennsylvania,
Publications, Series in Philology, Literature,
and Archaeology, vol. 1 no. 4. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania, 1891.

Objects Used in Religious Ceremonies, and Charms
and Implements for Divination. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania, 1892.

The Museums of Archaeology at the University of
Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1893.

“Mancala: The National Game of
Africa.” U.S. National Museum,
Annual Report (1894): 595-607.

“Retrospect of the Folklore of the Columbian
Exposition.”
Journal of American Folklore 7 (1894):
51-59.

“The Value of Games in Ethnology.”
American Association for the Advancement of Science,
Proceedings 43 (1894): 355-58.

“Chinese Games with Dice and
Dominoes.” U.S. National Museum,
Annual Report 1893 (1895):
489-537.

Korean Games, with Notes on the Corresponding
Games of China and Japan. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania,
1895. (Reprint: Dover, 1991.)

Archaeological Objects Exhibited by the
Department of Archaeology and Paleontology, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1895.

“Dominoes, the National Game of
China.”
Overland Monthly (November 1895):
559-65.

Commemoration of the Fourth Centenary of the
Discovery of America, Columbian Historical Exposition, Madrid.
Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1895.

“Catalogue of Ethnographical Objects from
Somaliland and the Galla Country Collected by Dr. A. Donaldson Smith, in the
Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania.” In
Through Unknown African Countries.
London: Edward Arnold, 1897.

Culin Materials in Other Repositories

In an effort to provide access to the full range of Culin's work,
project staff contacted more than twenty institutions in the United States and
Canada that potentially held Culin documentation. Culin research material that
may be located in Europe and Asia was beyond the scope of this project, which
focused on North American repositories.

Based on responses to our inquiries, site surveys were conducted in
seven repositories, and information was gathered by mail and telephone from
five additional repositories.

The following entries provide the researcher with basic information on
the extent and content of holdings; more detailed information collected in the
course of the survey is available to researchers at the Brooklyn Museum
Archives.

Please note that most museums and archives require an appointment to
consult their holdings and that a letter or call in advance is a critical first
step for researchers.

In the correspondence housed at the American Museum of Natural
History, Culin contacts curators Clark Wissler, Herbert Spinden, and Frederic
A. Lucas, discussing the Primitive Negro Art exhibition, the International
Congress of Americanists, gambling sticks and the Navajo dictionary. A great
deal of the Culin material here is correspondence about Culin and his
activities, rather than to or from him. This includes exchanges between Herbert
Spinden and Walt Cheney (Cheney Brothers Manufacturing), Lockwood deForest, and
M. D. C. Crawford; P. E. Goddard and M. D. C. Crawford; Clark Wissler and Alice
Culin and Bonwit Teller. The Exhibition of Industrial Arts, the Lockwood
deForest collection, the Industrial Arts and Costume and History of the Blouse
exhibitions, and a study room for designers are among the topics mentioned in
relation to Culin. In addition, a small amount of correspondence is held by the
Museum Library. Topics of the letters, covering the years 1901-27, include the
Brock coin collection, purchase of a Tule boat from Hudson, collecting Chinese
objects, and African collections.

The Culin material at the American Philosophical Society
consists of letters from Culin to Franz Boas, the anthropologist Elsie Clews
Parsons (1875-1941), and the American Philosophical Society itself. Topics
addressed include Society publications, the American Anthropologist, a memorial
volume for Frederic Ward Putnam, and Father Dumarest's Hopi manuscript.

The Bancroft Library, University Archives

University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
(501) 642-3781

Alfred L. Kroeber papers (1900-1960), 37 l.f. (Culin: .01
l.f.)

Phoebe Apperson Hearst (1869-1918), 49 l.f. (Culin: .01 l.f.)

Alfred Kroeber served as both curator and director during his
tenure at the Anthropology Museum of the University of California (1908-46); in
addition, he was a Professor of Anthropology at the University (1901-46). In
his correspondence with Culin, Native American games are discussed. Letters to
Phoebe Apperson Hearst (1842-1919), a philanthropist, were written on behalf of
the University of Pennsylvania Department of Archaeology and Paleontology,
which Hearst supported.

Culin often traveled and collected in British Columbia with
Charles Newcombe. Included here are lists of items bought for the University of
Pennsylvania, notes on the thunderbird mask, bills for collecting expenses, and
shipping bills.

The Grace Hudson Museum holds the collection of anthropologist
and collector John Hudson, who acted as Culin's guide and mentor in northern
California, particularly among the Pomo. Among the photographs relating to
Culin are installation shots of the California Indian Hall at the Brooklyn
Museum, a portrait of Culin by George Wilcox, several field photographs related
to those in the expedition reports, and images of an acorn granary basket
commissioned by Hudson for Culin. Clippings also exist of the latter. The
correspondence files contain only a few letters from the 1920s but are rich
with materials on Culin's contemporaries and colleagues.

Herbert Spinden succeeded Culin at the Brooklyn Museum. When
Spinden left the Museum, the Culin materials now found in the Spinden
Photographic Archives were probably among the research notes and photographs he
took with him. Culin photographs include images of Native American communities
of the Southwest and California; many are from the 1907 and 1908 expeditions.
Photographs of objects also appear, along with photographic reproductions of
Cushing sketches for On the Axe and Calumet. In addition, offprints of
articles, sketches of textile designs, and object labels are held here. The
Spinden Archive contains approximately eleven thousand individual images
duplicated in slide, microfilm, glass plate, and print, as well as 7,500
additional prints.

Frederic Ward Putnam taught archaeology and anthropology at
Harvard University (1839-1915) and served as the Curator of the Peabody Museum
(1875-1909). The majority of the Culin correspondence concerns the planning of
the ethnology exhibits at the World's Columbian Exposition. Additional
materials may be found in the Putnam Papers at the Peabody Museum Archives,
including Culin's
“Primitive Religion, Games, and
Folklore,” written for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893,
15 and a manuscript of his
“Games in Burma.”
16

In the records held in the National Anthropological Archives,
Culin's correspondents include William J. McGee, Frank Hamilton Cushing, F. W.
Holmes, Frederick Hodge, J. Walter Fewkes, and Ales Hdrlicka. Among the topics
discussed are the American Anthropological Association; the American Folklore
Society; memorials for Daniel Brinton and Frank Hamilton Cushing; Cushing
photographic plates, portrait, and sketches; the disposition of the Cushing
collection; tribal classification; Korean, Hopi, Zuni, and Aztec games; a
linguistic map; the Micmac Indians; the 24th Annual Report; a Zuni altar; St.
Michaels; a Navajo dictionary; the International Congress of Americanists; and
revisions to Culin articles. In addition, a manuscript on games of chance and
dexterity; notes on an Indian dictionary; and photographs of Indian textiles,
carved sticks, stone sculptures and Culin are held here.

Edward Morse (1838-1925) served as director of the Peabody
Academy of Science and worked with the Japanese collection at the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston. Culin corresponded with Morse regarding Japanese objects and
culture.

Primary Culin correspondents in the Smithsonian Institution
Archives include Randolph I. Geare, Chief of the Smithsonian Institution's
Division of Correspondence and Documents; George B. Goode, Assistant Secretary
in charge of the United States National Museum; Frederick W. True, Head Curator
of National Museum's Department of Biology; and William Henry Holmes, Curator
of the National Museum's Anthropology Department. Topics include Culin's papers
on the game of mancala and Japanese incense; Zuni Breadstuff; the Atlanta
Exposition; the Manjiro manuscript; games; object exchanges; and the Madrid
Exposition.

The majority of the Southwest Museum's Culin holdings is
correspondence contained in the Charles F. Lummis Manuscript Collection, the
Frank Hamilton Cushing Manuscript Collection, and the Frederick Webb Hodge
Manuscript Collection. Hodge brought the Cushing material with him when he
moved from the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Southwest Museum in 1931.
Correspondence between Lummis and Culin pertains to Indian rights and games,
Keam's Canyon, Frank Hamilton Cushing, Cliff Dwellers, the University of
Pennsylvania, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Southwest Museum. Culin and Cushing
discuss Daniel Brinton; the World's Columbian Exposition; the University of
Pennsylvania; George Dorsey; the United States National Museum; the American
Anthropological Society; the Apache, Hopi, Sioux, Zuni, Tarahumara, Kiowa, and
Micmac; the Bureau of American Ethnology; William Pepper; Phoebe Hearst; the
United States National Museum; and objects from Key Marco. A letter from Culin
to Emily Cushing, Frank Hamilton's wife, asks her to identify Cushing material.
Culin and Hodge correspondence refers to the transfer of the Cushing manuscript
collection; the Museum of the American Indian; the American Anthropologist; the
Pomo, Navajo and Hopi; toys; games; and Korea. In addition to correspondence
with Culin, the Southwest Museum retains a great deal of material in which
Culin is a subject, including Cushing, Hodge, and Lummis correspondence and
drafts of Cushing articles. Lummis's diaries also mention Culin.

Culin served as secretary of the Board of Managers of the
newly formed Museum of the University of Pennsylvania from 1890 to 1894. In
1892, he was appointed director of the Museum, a position he held until 1899
when the office was abolished. Also in 1899 he was appointed Curator of the
Oriental and General Ethnology and American Sections, positions he retained
until leaving the museum in 1903 The holdings of the University of Pennsylvania
Museum Archives include correspondence, memoranda and notes from the Director's
Office; the American, Asian, African and Oceanian sections; the Registrar's
Office; and the Museum Library (including the Brinton library). The Museum's
game, coin, and musical instrument collections are all documented, along with
the Drexel fan, Hazzard-Hearst, and Thomas Keam collections. In correspondence
with Frank Hamilton Cushing, Culin discusses excavations at Key Marco, Florida.
Correspondence, notes, accession records and photographs also chronicle the
Wanamaker, Cuba, and Florida expeditions. In addition, letterpress books,
scrapbooks, Catalogue cards, monthly and annual reports, and accession ledger
books exist.

14)
All of the publications listed here (in chronological order) are
available in the Brooklyn Museum of Art Library Collection. While the majority
of Culin's unpublished writings may be found in the Archival Collection (and
have been fully cataloged on RLIN), a few manuscripts are held by the Library.
Culin also contributed to several newspapers and magazines, among them
Women's Wear,
Good Furniture, and
Asia; clippings from these and other
publications may be found among the archival holdings.
(return)